Hi there. I am new to the forum but wanted to ask a question re bidding.

I placed a bid of â‚¬300 on an item that had a starting price of â‚¬199 but zero bids. The item was a bit hard to find so I didnt think there would be many other bids and thought that I might get a bargain. However someone came along several hours later and placed a lower bid of â‚¬288.

My question is. Does the ebay bidding system allow someone to bid a lower amount than I had placed or would the second bidder have had to have used a snipe bid to acheive that. If it was a snipe then it was a strange time to do it as the auction still has 1.5 days to run.

It's all a bit strange as the second bidders bid has effectively pushed up the amount I will have to pay.

Also, please can you go to 'New Members, introduce yourself here' and introduce yourself, thanks, and Welcome to the Forum.

_________________"In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all â€“ security, comfort, and freedom. Whet the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again"

Sun Sep 02, 2007 8:12 am

AuctionCUT.com

member

Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2006 7:56 pmPosts: 332

Quote:

I placed a bid of â‚¬300 on an item that had a starting price of â‚¬199 but zero bids. The item was a bit hard to find so I didnt think there would be many other bids and thought that I might get a bargain. However someone came along several hours later and placed a lower bid of â‚¬288.

Yes - it's normal. Although you bid 300, ebay only bids as much is necessary to maintain your high bid position. As you are the first bidder this would be 199. Effectively you are allowing eBay to bid on your behalf upto 300 if necessary.

If I bid 250 eBay will increase your bid to 255 (or a similar amount) to maintain you as the high bidder. If I bid over your maximum bid amount, say 301 then I'll become the highest bidder.

Also, please can you go to 'New Members, introduce yourself here' and introduce yourself, thanks, and Welcome to the Forum.

I have now introduced myself.

You are right. I am the highest bidder but I was under the impression that the Ebay system doesn't allow someone to place a bid unless it is over the current high bid. It seems strange that someone comes along with just one bid that has pushed my effective bid up to 296, just four pounds below my maximum.

Every time I have ever bid on an item and I haven't matched the current high bidders amount, plus the increment, it wont allow me to bid.

_________________"In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all â€“ security, comfort, and freedom. Whet the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again"

Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:01 am

MARK CROOK

Moderator

Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:32 amPosts: 6421

levington wrote:

saviour wrote:

What is the listing, so we can see what has happened.

Your bid should still be the highest, at 300

Also, please can you go to 'New Members, introduce yourself here' and introduce yourself, thanks, and Welcome to the Forum.

I have now introduced myself.

You are right. I am the highest bidder but I was under the impression that the Ebay system doesn't allow someone to place a bid unless it is over the current high bid. It seems strange that someone comes along with just one bid that has pushed my effective bid up to 296, just four pounds below my maximum.

Every time I have ever bid on an item and I haven't matched the current high bidders amount, plus the increment, it wont allow me to bid.

your quite right, but because your bid stood at â‚¬199 as the first bid, then there bid was not lower, but higher...

after they placed this bid, the ebay system then re bid for you, and will keep doing this upto your maximun â‚¬300 bid.

it has to be like this to keep it fir, otherwise i would find something i wanted,,

bid â‚¬1million and no one would be able to out bid me, and i would win for â‚¬199..

Thanks very much for all the replies and helpfull advice. I suppose I am just a bit inexperienced at bidding but will know next time not to bid so much on my first bid.

Thanks again.

Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:58 pm

Dan

Moderator

Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:31 pmPosts: 1869

yeh and also try and not to bid when theres alot of time left on the auction.. whack the item in your watch list and be patient. try and bid at last minute if you can. i usually do it myself .. bid when theres about 1-2 mins left of the auction

_________________Don't Steal!, Become a M.P, Its Not Theft, Its Expenses...

Another trick of bidding is to add a few cents on to your bid - say â‚¬301.12 for example - a lot of people place round figures as bids, so even if somebody came in at â‚¬301 in the last seconds, you would still be the highest bidder.